Mainstreet Brick Business Plan — Site, Plant and Production
The semi-automatic static hydraulic press, two-shift operation, 1,345,000 units a month installed capacity and the curing regime.
Site, Plant and Production
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- Overview & contents
- i. Important Notice and Basis of Preparation
- 1. Executive Summary
- 2. The Unit Economics of Brick Making
- 3. Market Analysis
- 4. Products and Positioning
- 5. SWOT and Competitive Position
- 6. Site, Plant and Production
- 7. Route to Market and Sales Strategy
- 8. Regulatory, Environmental and Quality Compliance
- 9. Management and Organisation
- 10. Capital Requirement and Funding
- 11. Financial Projections
- 12. Break-Even Analysis
- 13. Debt Service and Working Capital
- 14. Investment Returns
- 15. Sensitivity and Scenario Analysis
- 16. Value Creation Levers
- 17. Risk Management
- 18. Implementation Timeline
- 19. Conditions for Success and Exit Options
- 20. Key Performance Indicators
- 21. Key Assumptions
- 22. Conclusion
- A. Appendix A: Consolidated Financial Summary
- B. Appendix B: Capital and Depreciation Schedules
- C. Appendix C: Funding and Debt Schedules
- D. Appendix D: Risk Register
- E. Appendix E: Glossary
- 6.1 Site requirements
- 6.2 Production process and capacity
- 6.3 Utilisation and the ramp
6.1 Site requirements
- Approximately 1.5 hectares of industrial-zoned land, leased rather than purchased to preserve capital. The yard must accommodate raw material stockpiles, the production building, a curing area, finished-goods stacking and truck circulation for 30-tonne vehicles.
- Proximity to aggregate supply is decisive. Crusher sand and aggregate are the highest-tonnage input; every kilometre between quarry and plant is a permanent cost. The site should sit between its aggregate source and its demand centre, not beyond either.
- Three-phase power of sufficient capacity for the block machine, mixer and compressors, plus water supply — a borehole with a recycling system is modelled, since municipal water for curing at volume is both expensive and unreliable in many industrial areas.
- Road access suitable for heavy vehicles, and enough hardstand that finished stock is not standing in mud during the rainy season.
6.2 Production process and capacity
Aggregate and cement are batched and mixed to a controlled dry mix, fed to a static hydraulic press that vibro-compacts units onto production pallets, which are racked and cured for 24 to 48 hours before being de-palletised, banded and moved to the finished-goods yard for a seven-day strength gain.
|
Product |
Capacity a month |
Capacity a year |
Year 3 output |
Year 5 output |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Stock brick (7 MPa) |
900 000 |
10.80m |
9.50m |
10.37m |
|
Maxi brick (90 mm) |
240 000 |
2.88m |
2.53m |
2.76m |
|
M140 hollow block |
140 000 |
1.68m |
1.48m |
1.61m |
|
M190 hollow block |
65 000 |
0.78m |
0.69m |
0.75m |
|
Total |
1 345 000 |
16.14m |
14.20m |
15.49m |
6.3 Utilisation and the ramp
|
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Capacity utilisation |
66.0% |
79.0% |
88.0% |
93.1% |
96.0% |
|
Units produced, million |
10.65 |
12.75 |
14.20 |
15.03 |
15.49 |
|
Units sold after breakage, million |
10.33 |
12.37 |
13.78 |
14.58 |
15.03 |
|
Cash break-even utilisation |
67.3% |
78.2% |
80.4% |
82.9% |
85.5% |
|
Headroom, percentage points |
-1.3 |
0.8 |
7.6 |
10.2 |
10.5 |
The ramp is the investment case. The plant is below cash break-even in Year 1 by 1.3 percentage points of capacity, crosses it in Year 2 with 0.8 points to spare, and only builds meaningful headroom from Year 3. Two years of trading at or below break-even is what the funding structure must carry, and it is why contracted offtake before commissioning is treated in Section 19 as a condition precedent rather than a sales objective.